Three workers died after tons of rocks and soil collapsed and buried them at the construction site of a drainage canal in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday.

The accident happened at around 11:20 p.m. at the construction site of the Thu Duc drainage canal on Vo Van Ngan-Nguyen Van Ba crossroads in Thu Duc District.

Ha Van Hung, 45, Nong Van Nghiep, 33, and Tran Van Trinh, 32, were reportedly sitting on the edge of a hole waiting for a truck to dig up soil before installing a drainage pipe when soil and rocks collapsed.

They were buried more than 4 meters underground.

Other workers working nearby dug up the soil and pulled the three out of the rubble but they had already died.

According to police, work on the drainage canal was nearly complete when the accident happened.